Multiplying by 3
I have 4 tubs of 3 pencils. How many pencils do I have in total?
There are 3 in each group so I can work out the answer as a repeated addition.
3+3+3+3 = 12
Another way to write this is 4 groups of 3.
As a number sentence this is 4 x 3 = 12
Example 1
Here are 5 triangles.
Each triangle has 3 sides, how many sides are there all together?
The repeated addition is 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 +3 = 15
The multiplication sentence is 5 x 3 = 15
Dividing by 3
When we say divide by 3 we mean we are sharing an amount or number into 3 equal groups.
Example 2
I have 6 marbles and I want to share or divide them by 3 people.
Divided by 3 people means putting 6 marbles into 3 equal groups.
I take one marble at a time and move them into each group, making sure each group has the same amount.
Once the whole amount has been shared equally, how many are in each group?
There are 2 marbles in each group.
6梅3 = 2
Example 3
Take a look at the bar model. How could you work out the missing values?
The whole number is 18 so this is at the top.
The bottom has been split into 3 equal groups that make up 18.
Let鈥檚 share 18 counters into three groups to help.
The counters have been shared equally each 3 groups and each group has 6 counters.
18 梅 3 = 6
Activity
Quiz
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More on Multiplying and dividing
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